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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. Australia, 1846-1847
Author Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Lefevre, Sir J G S; Wood, C Alexander; Rogers, Frederick
Date 4 Dec 1846 - 26 Nov 1847
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/64
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters, mostly addressed to Sir James Stephen or Benjamin Hawes, some for the attention of Lord Grey, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The correspondence largely relates to the sale of land in the colonies, claims upon the government by migrant landowners, colonial administration and colonial finances. The development of mining and railways, the cost of funding assisted migration, and the demand for further migrants also feature. An index is included at the end of the volume.
Series Description This series contains original correspondence, entry books and registers of the Agent General for Emigration, the South Australian Commissioners and the Land and Emigration Commission. Amongst the miscellaneous contents are registers of births and deaths of emigrants at sea 1854-1869, lists of ships chartered 1847-1875, registers of surgeons appointed 1854-1894, and volumes of The Colonial Gazette 1838-1842.
Biographical Note / History A Colonial Land and Emigration Commission was created in 1840 to undertake the duties of two earlier and overlapping authorities which were both under the supervision of the Secretary of State. These were the Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia, established under an Act of 1834, and the Agent General for Emigration, appointed in 1837. The new commission dealt with grants of land, the outward movement of settlers, the administration of the Passengers' Acts of 1855 and 1863 and, from 1846 to 1859, the scrutiny of colonial legislation. In 1855 it became the Emigration Commission. In 1873 the administration of the Passengers' Acts was transferred to the Board of Trade. The commission's powers were gradually given up to the larger colonies as they obtained self-government, and after 1873 its only duties were the control of the importation of Indian indentured labour into sugar-producing colonies and it was abolished in 1878.
Theme(s) Politics, Legislation and Governance
Country (from) Great Britain; Ireland
Country (to) Australia; New Zealand
Places Geelong, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory, New South Wales, Western Australia, Australia; Plymouth, England
Ports Port Essington, Sydney, New South Wales, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia; Glasgow, Scotland; Auckland, New Zealand
Nationality English; European; Irish
Ships David Malcolm; Canton; Britannia; Lady Bruce; Louisa Campbell; Orient; Hooghly; Asia
People Gipps, George; Stephen, Sir James; Lord Howick (Grey, Henry); Grey, Sir George; Hawes, Benjamin
Keywords emigration, agriculture, labour, labourer, land sale, land price, money, religion, agent, eligibility, mining, quarantine, South Australia company, New Zealand Company, squatting, assisted emigration, child migration, female emigration, railway, finance, Catholicism, Protestantism, Bounty Emigration, administration, agent, claims, land grant
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK